GeForce RTX 3090 Ti vs GTX 1660

Place in the ranking	187	10
Place by popularity	40	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	47.69	8.29
Power efficiency	17.44	11.81
Architecture	Turing (2018−2022)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	TU116	GA102
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	14 March 2019 (5 years ago)	27 January 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$219	$1,999

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 1660 has 475% better value for money than RTX 3090 Ti.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1408	10752
Core clock speed	1530 MHz	1560 MHz
Boost clock speed	1785 MHz	1860 MHz
Number of transistors	6,600 million	28,300 million
Manufacturing process technology	12 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	450 Watt
Texture fill rate	157.1	625.0
Floating-point processing power	5.027 TFLOPS	40 TFLOPS
ROPs	48	112
TMUs	88	336
Tensor Cores	no data	336
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	84

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	229 mm	336 mm
Width	2-slot	3-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 8-pin	1x 16-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR6X
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	24 GB
Memory bus width	192 Bit	384 Bit
Memory clock speed	2001 MHz	1313 MHz
Memory bandwidth	192.1 GB/s	1,008 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort	1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI	+	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.5	6.6
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	3.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.3
CUDA	7.5	8.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 1660 30.33

RTX 3090 Ti 77.04
+154%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 1660 11664

RTX 3090 Ti 29622
+154%

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 1660 21064

RTX 3090 Ti 69481
+230%

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 1660 14164

RTX 3090 Ti 53110
+275%

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 1660 81755

RTX 3090 Ti 246319
+201%

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 1660 570753
+1.2%

RTX 3090 Ti 564087

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	84 −162%	220 +162%
1440p	51 −200%	153 +200%
4K	27 −300%	108 +300%

Cost per frame, $

1080p	2.61 +249%	9.09 −249%
1440p	4.29 +204%	13.07 −204%
4K	8.11 +128%	18.51 −128%

GTX 1660 has 249% lower cost per frame in 1080p
GTX 1660 has 204% lower cost per frame in 1440p
GTX 1660 has 128% lower cost per frame in 4K

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Counter-Strike 2	72 −151%	180−190 +151%
Cyberpunk 2077	71 −208%	219 +208%
Elden Ring	84 −260%	300−350 +260%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 −31.5%	110−120 +31.5%
Counter-Strike 2	56 −223%	180−190 +223%
Cyberpunk 2077	55 −83.6%	101 +83.6%
Forza Horizon 4	132 −234%	400−450 +234%
Metro Exodus	95 −60%	150−160 +60%
Red Dead Redemption 2	112 −26.8%	140−150 +26.8%
Valorant	138 −208%	400−450 +208%

Full HD
High Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 −31.5%	110−120 +31.5%
Counter-Strike 2	48 −277%	180−190 +277%
Cyberpunk 2077	45 −91.1%	86 +91.1%
Dota 2	150 −23.3%	185 +23.3%
Elden Ring	90 −252%	317 +252%
Far Cry 5	145 +6.6%	136 −6.6%
Fortnite	140−150 −114%	300−350 +114%
Forza Horizon 4	110 −301%	400−450 +301%
Grand Theft Auto V	115 −47.8%	170 +47.8%
Metro Exodus	66 −10.6%	73 +10.6%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	216 +0.5%	210−220 −0.5%
Red Dead Redemption 2	40 −255%	140−150 +255%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	100−110 −70.6%	170−180 +70.6%
Valorant	65 −554%	400−450 +554%
World of Tanks	270−280 −1.8%	270−280 +1.8%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	85−90 −31.5%	110−120 +31.5%
Counter-Strike 2	43 −321%	180−190 +321%
Cyberpunk 2077	38 −100%	76 +100%
Dota 2	197 +1%	195 −1%
Far Cry 5	85−90 −70.6%	140−150 +70.6%
Forza Horizon 4	95 −364%	400−450 +364%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	170−180 −21.5%	210−220 +21.5%
Valorant	115 −270%	400−450 +270%

1440p
High Preset

Dota 2	52 −190%	151 +190%
Elden Ring	47 −343%	208 +343%
Grand Theft Auto V	52 −190%	151 +190%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	129 −35.7%	170−180 +35.7%
Red Dead Redemption 2	25 −272%	90−95 +272%
World of Tanks	190−200 −163%	500−550 +163%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	60−65 −45%	85−90 +45%
Counter-Strike 2	26 −312%	100−110 +312%
Cyberpunk 2077	23 −126%	52 +126%
Far Cry 5	90−95 −70.2%	160−170 +70.2%
Forza Horizon 4	67 −346%	290−300 +346%
Metro Exodus	59 −131%	130−140 +131%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	45−50 −271%	170−180 +271%
Valorant	72 −400%	350−400 +400%

4K
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	16 −525%	100−105 +525%
Dota 2	49 −269%	181 +269%
Elden Ring	21 −452%	116 +452%
Grand Theft Auto V	49 −269%	181 +269%
Metro Exodus	20 −320%	84 +320%
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	81 −158%	200−210 +158%
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20 −237%	60−65 +237%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	49 −269%	181 +269%

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	30−35 −176%	90−95 +176%
Counter-Strike 2	27−30 −245%	100−105 +245%
Cyberpunk 2077	10 −170%	27 +170%
Dota 2	87 −111%	184 +111%
Far Cry 5	40−45 −150%	100−110 +150%
Fortnite	40−45 −140%	95−100 +140%
Forza Horizon 4	36 −353%	160−170 +353%
Valorant	38 −453%	210−220 +453%

This is how GTX 1660 and RTX 3090 Ti compete in popular games:

RTX 3090 Ti is 162% faster in 1080p
RTX 3090 Ti is 200% faster in 1440p
RTX 3090 Ti is 300% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 1660 is 7% faster.
in Valorant, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the RTX 3090 Ti is 554% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 1660 is ahead in 3 tests (5%)
RTX 3090 Ti is ahead in 60 tests (95%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	30.33	77.04
Recency	14 March 2019	27 January 2022
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	24 GB
Chip lithography	12 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	450 Watt

GTX 1660 has 275% lower power consumption.

RTX 3090 Ti, on the other hand, has a 154% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 2 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 50% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 1660 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.